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As professionals, we always want to continue to grow in our field of expertise. Marketing, as countless other professions, is evolving very quickly due to new ways technology is transforming how we engage new and existing customers.

Video marketing is just one of these communications methods. Video is a powerful tool used to add emotion to story-telling, communicate complex ideas and provide an audience with an alternative learning format. However, the value of video depends heavily upon its use.

Some of the more common questions about video marketing include:

What are the most valuable uses of online video marketing?

What should we consider when planning?

How would one get started making video without breaking the bank?

Frank Schwartz of LEC Media

Frank Schwartz, Chief Video Officer of LEC Media -a leading video content agency in Charlotte - came by our office for a lunch and learn to discuss video marketing. Frank is both knowledgable, fun and a respected video expert. We've already been using video for clients, but because things change so quickly in our industry, we invited Frank in to update us on what's happening these days in his world.

We discussed the questions above and the changes happening in the video marketing space. Here's what we took away from the conversation.

Using Video for Online Marketing

Video has a lot of uses, online and offline. For online marketing, video can be used on a website, on 3rd-party websites, in email marketing and on social media. All of these uses play a role in increasing your company's online visibility, engaging your target audience and growing organic search traffic from search engines.

Website: Just because you go to the homepage of your website everyday doesn't mean all of your customers or potential customers do. You'll get bored of seeing the same video there, but it's going to take a long time for everyone to see it. Use a video on your homepage or in a video campaign for as long as makes sense, allowing all of your audience to see it.

Social sharing: Social networks are obviously great for sharing photos, but equally great for sharing video. When a video is properly indexed on your website, it will increase your web presence.

Email: Embedding a video doesn't truly work cross platforms. A new trend is including animated GIFs in emails. These are just a series of still shots that appear to run as a video. Here's an example.

With large amounts of information coming at us in all different ways, we need content that is easily digestible. Watching a 1 - 2 minute video is a lot quicker than reading a 16 page white paper. Video can be used as a way to provide an executive summary of a white paper or ebook. At the end of the video, you can always have a link to the full white paper/ebook.

3 Considerations for Video Marketing

Video hosting:Wistia is a preferred video host because it's easy to embed using generated code, transcribe videos for search engine optimization and closed captioning purposes and, unlike YouTube, there's no risk of competitor videos being shown to the user once the video completes.

Search Engine Optimization: Search engines are more content aware than ever before. Google tends to rank video higher than other content. Having your video transcribed is great for SEO because there are keywords in the transcribed text of the video that search engines will index.

Mobile compatibility: We continue to witness the explosive growth of mobile. It is important that your website - and videos - are mobile friendly.

As content consumers, we want content that is more engaging such as video. Using different formats for content (video, infographics, email, articles, white papers) helps us engage audiences in a variety of ways and in their style of learning. This means it's far more likely that our content will be consumed because it's in a format that's friendly to the person receiving the information.

When you're just getting your feet wet creating videos, start simply.

Here are a few quick tips from Frank on getting started on video.

1. It's ok to use your phone to take videos in the beginning. As you advance, move to higher-quality equipment.
2. Use a tripod to avoid shaking.
3. Don't forget framing. Be aware of the background.
4. Make people the prominent feature.
5. Most importantly - do not compromise on audio. Your phone mic will not do. Buy one!

Something to remember

Frank often reminds us that "We are in the people business." It is our job to connect with people, not just the search engines for keyword ranking. "How do you best connect with people? You talk," he says. Video is a powerful way to speak directly to your audience because your personality shows with voice inflections and body language in a way you can't with a written word.